UK Search Engine Marketing Report 2008
Google still dominates, yahoo is climbing a little and doubts if MSN can close the gap. E-consultancy.com have just released a new report which makes for very interesting reading, a few tasty morsels…
More than 1,000 respondents took part in this survey, making it the most authoritative study of its kind about this fast-evolving marketplace.
“The percentage of organisations using Yahoo!’s paid search platform has climbed from 45% last year to 49%. The proportion of advertisers using Microsoft’s platform has dropped slightly from 33% last year to 30% this year.”
"9% of companies surveyed are spending more than £1 million annually on paid search"
“Gregoriadis added: “As separate entities, Yahoo! and Microsoft are struggling to make significant inroads into Google’s seemingly impregnable position.”
The research also found that 89% of search advertisers rate Google as the best for return on investment and, identically, 89% of company respondents rate Google as the best for quality of traffic. Google is even more dominant for its management tools. An overwhelming 94% of client-side advertisers and 91% of agencies said that Google was the best in this regard"
Down load a sample of The UK Search Engine Marketing Report or for the full report from E-Consultancy.com
My thoughts are, evidence shows that MSN & Yahoo, whilst indeed they don’t have volume, for some merchants, they can yield a better conversion, indeed Yahoo came in as No 2 for next best converting engines. Whist this report is UK it would be intersting to see a US comparison re MSN and Yahoo.
"Some 77% of UK company respondents are based in the UK"
I would be asking the question how many people are seriously investing into other search engines to complement their google efforts. “Google’s seemingly impregnable position” The concerns I have and still have is that far too much investment into the one google basket is dangerous for a business and still advocate not putting all your eggs into the one google basket all that data about your business, would you hand the keys to your safe to a complete stranger?
Also some food for thought, what’s your plan B if google died tomorrow?
Was this latest move from google’s changes in their trade mark policy good for your business? Some will argue yes and some will argue no, it depends on who you are, what is clear is that google likes to keep us on our toes and throw a few curve balls and all we can do is be reactive, this makes me nervous. Impo, we need a serious competitor to secure our businesses and MSN/Yahoo have got to get it together to provide that choice. All the signs are there it’s in their conversions (for some companies) this is encouraging and I really do hope they can get the juice and tools to propel them on and fast! Don’t get me wrong, I think google is a super power and they command respect. Now here is where I can see an interesting scenario developing which could work to MSN’s advantage. “According to company respondents, the biggest problems preventing paid search marketing success are as follows:
1) Keywords too expensive (38%)
2) Lack of internal resource (36%)
3) Lack of budget (34%)"
Where by click costs become so expensive it starts to drive companies to the competitors and it will start with the small to medium businesses. Internal resources, lack of… may also drive businesses to google’s competitors. The more the google goal posts keep shifting, the more appealing their competitors become, now that would be an interesting scenario. Never underestimate the little person, whilst economically they may have less then the deeper pockets, collectively they have the power to influence and change the search landscape over time.
We’ll see :0)
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[…] Thomas Dillner wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptMy thoughts are, evidence shows that MSN & Yahoo, whilst indeed they don’t have volume, for some merchants, they can yield a better conversion, indeed Yahoo came in as No 2 for next best converting engines. Whist this report is UK it … […]
[…] all independent bodies in ecommerce are all reporting similar trends, if we can remind you about E-Consultancy’s report , the trend here in the UK is the same as the […]
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor